Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[no fly zone]

This is Mona (daughter of Laserbeak and a silkie father) and the legendary Pinecone.

 

[Perris]

Then there's the fermented feed problem. How would that fare in one of these feeders left for say 48 hours at ambient temperature.

fermented feed shouldn't go in galvanized feeders either (which treadle feeders usually are).

 

[Shadrach]

They seem to "graze" all day combined with a flurry of activity and periods of rest and dust baths.

All the chickens, apart from some of the Ex Battery hens who never quite got the hang of it, forage whether given commercial feed, or not, if ranged or kept free range in a large enough area.
It is in my view natural behaviour and there are some very important aspects to foraging apart from keeping the keepers feed bill down.
It's what chickens do and have done for centuries. It's not just about the food, it's exercise, social interactions, natrual social arrangements, feeding opportunities designed to meet their digestive systems. Stumbling accross large piles of convenience food hasn't been a chicken thing until recently.
What I've seen a lot of is chickens spread out, with the group gradually moving along as the roosters stand guard. They like to eat together and if the group moves off, even if a particular hen has found a good supply of bugs in some hole, she will in general leave the bugs and follow the group.
This is on acres of ground. A fast moving group of chickens can be hundreds of metres away in seconds and hidden from sight.
It's the same with the allotment chickens. It's not at all big at an acre but I've lost their location numerous times when they've moved at speed to a new location.
Feeding is the same. I put feed down with the gate to the allotments shut now because the senior/most hungry will eat some and then want out onto the allotments. If I open the gate they'll go leaving the juniors still trying to eat. The juniors stop eating and follow the group.

 

[Perris]

Chirk has company tonight Maria has spent all day in with him, and declined to exit at dinner time; he was coo-ing sweetly to her as I closed up I may be wrong but I don't think her behaviour is based on altruism. She is having a hard moult and Chirk is a lot easier to dodge than either Killay or Fforest - though he probably doesn't realize that's why she's there; ignorance is bliss and all that.

 

[MaryJanet]

I was thinking about it and then Fret went broody and hatched and it's only now that Dig and Mow weight enough to operate the lid.
There are other complications; I can see Fret refusing to go anywhere near the contraption in case it eats her. which apparently they really do from time to time.
Then there's the fermented feed problem. How would that fare in one of these feeders left for say 48 hours at ambient temperature.
I'm thinking about it.

For what it's worth, the treadle feeders have been excellent for the hens at my house, once they had learned to use them and that took much longer than the pamphlet said. Mainly because I didn't want to leverage hunger in the training.

 

[Shadrach]

fermented feed shouldn't go in galvanized feeders either (which treadle feeders usually are).

Apart from the materials the things are made of the chickens still chuck feed out of them and the rats eat that.

 

[Shadrach]

Chirk has company tonight Maria has spent all day in with him, and declined to exit at dinner time; he was coo-ing sweetly to her as I closed up I may be wrong but I don't think her behaviour is based on altruism. She is having a hard moult and Chirk is a lot easier to dodge than either Killay or Fforest - though he probably doesn't realize that's why she's there; ignorance is bliss and all that.

Could be the start of something.

 

[MaryJanet]

Apart from the materials the things are made of the chickens still chuck feed out of them and the rats eat that.

Not as much as open tray feeders though.

Perhaps because of the width of the treadle feeder or the straight sides, when the hens sweep their beaks from left to right, far less feed goes over the edge.

 

[Perris]

Could be the start of something.

As she's 6 and he's 4, I think if they were going to get it on, they'd have done it already

 

[Shadrach]

For what it's worth, the treadle feeders have been excellent for the hens at my house, once they had learned to use them and that took much longer than the pamphlet said. Mainly because I didn't want to leverage hunger in the training.

If my long term plan was to continue feeding them pellets then a treadle feeder would ease, if not solve some of the problems but I gather from people that getting them to use the feeder is often far from easy.
In the short term I'll leave more feed in the coop overnight and see when there is some left.